Patent Attorney Breaks Down Impact of the America Invents Act 142
msmoriarty writes "As you probably heard, on Friday the Obama administration signed the America Invents Act, which changed our system to 'first to file.' Support for the bill itself was split in the tech industry: Microsoft and IBM (among others) supported the act, Google and Apple opposed it. Redmondmag asked a patent attorney to explain in detail the act and what impact he thinks it will have on the tech industry. According to him, there are still many open questions. From the article: 'The Act has not accomplished [first to file] harmonization in a straightforward or unambiguous way. For example, it is not clear whether a prior use or offer for sale of an invention by an inventor or joint inventor within a year of the date of filing would render the invention unpatentable.' He also said that the act clearly favors larger corporations, and he doubts it will speed up the patent process itself, which was one of its intended benefits."
Re:More political theater (Score:4, Informative)
Worse than that, since it's now "first to file" instead of "first to invent", technically it outright encourages patents on items that have been in the commons for years or even centuries, since if nobody has filed a patent on it yet, it doesn't matter who invented it, it's up for grabs and lawsuits.
Only if you have pockets deep enough to use the legal system to bully anyone who might challenge your patently weak patent. Challenges cost money. For Big Corp, Inc., that's usually chump change. Big Corp wins, citizen loses. Again.
Re:Simple (Score:5, Informative)
IBM is now mostly a services company with little need for new patents.
And yet in 2009, they received 4900 patents and in 2010 they received nearly 5900 which is more than any other company. IBM has for 18 consecutive years held the #1 position in granted patents . Reality doesn't seem to march your assertion.